trains. just below this as well as a very important concentration of retail, and the train platform level itself is one level below that connected by elevators and escalators. a good bit of work has been done on a critical aspect of the program, which is retail. it is right in the center. retail is going to be critical to the support and livelihood of this new community. two floors, ground floor and second floor, comprise 65,000 square feet of retail in the future, primarily food-based retail, service with two loading docks, highly permeable, accessible from all aspects of the surrounding neighborhood. it is a bit small, but you can see retail store fronts are also

being developed to the highly visible. accessible and part of the neighborhood quality of this part of town. now you are standing on natoma street, looking back toward second. you can see the bus ramp coming in from the bay bridge. to your right is a wonderful concentration primarily a food- based retail. a bit closer, you will see the building is a very welcoming, transparent. storefronts are being designed to emphasize that tenant inside. as you can imagine, with a structure this impressive and imposing, there is a concern tenants will be visible with the primary design is you. this is a very interesting view to me.

if any of you remember minna if you years ago, it did not look like this. to see an image like this sum of 150 years later, really speaks an enormous amount of civilization and progress, in a relatively brief span of time. minna will be full of retail and activity, full, open, and accessible. this is a few of the thunder pass through the transit center. this is an important underpass, one of the primary ways north and south through the transit center, also a site for public art and retail activity. i will go into a little bit more detail on the architecture of the exterior. this is such a critical aspect of what we are doing.

the glass awnings i described earlier is made of laminated glass. very safe. it has then been patterned with a ceramic pattern, baked-on pattern, in a mdot configuration. there are two scales, a large and small are not in the intermediate. it is intended to be a kind of half in gauze. you can see through them but you are not exposed entirely to all the activity on the inside, so the building has presence and solidity, but transparency as well. holding these glass panels is the diamond-shaped gusset plates. this is being designed, as you can imagine, very carefully, to withstand earthquakes low, any security considerations that might impact outside. just behind that is the very robust structure.

this is of view of one of the note points where the structure is now branching to support the park, bused back level behind this node, a critical but -- design feature. the next two slides get to one of the more critical current issues, what happens when one of the connections comes undone in a catenary? of course, the bus plaza will be full of catenary activity. if one of those comes undone, we had developed a bumper system on the glass wall so that the captain barry will not affect or touch the wall, in any way. as simple an idea as this might seem, it has taken a great deal of technical and architectural development to make it functional and handsome as well. the good thing is you can barely

see the bumper. again, this is beale street. the building is an uninterrupted by this extra detail. the park has also undergone a great deal of development in the past several months. one of the things we have been looking at, because it is critical not only to look and feel of the park, but also the cost and functionality, is what will it be like on day one, 20 years into the future? here you can see the opening day of the park. the size of the trees are carefully chosen so that they are a reasonable beginning size. this has to do both with their cultivation as plant species, as well as the cost and density of the park. at year 2025, those years -- at your 25, they create a large open space but still very

conducive to weigh-finding. from first street, this is day one. this is your 25. as the part develops in the future, you can see that the park becomes more and more will come. we are also quite fortunate to be working with a number of good artists in the transit center. julie chang, a local san francisco artist in doing this multicolored floor for the grand palazzo. she has been so good, we are still finding places in the building for her to work. her work tells a story of san francisco, both its cultural and ecological environment. her carpet in the grand hall is also creating a relationship with the park above. here you can see her work depicted. another important artist, jenny

holzer is doing an electronic piece that is surrounding the glass on the bus deck level. jenny works primarily in led's. she plans to do text based on the history of san francisco's literary community, a very exciting program and one that brings all of these -- all of these move throughout the day, so it will bring a great deal of animation to the building. james carpenter, another established international artist, is working with us on the shot alley underpass, designing the ceiling and seating elements. here you can see some details of his benches and flooring material. it is intended to be a light source as well as a place of comfort. here you can see in the ceiling of shaw alley, just behind those

words are the benches. a san francisco artist, ned khan, is designing a fountain that will run 1,400 feet in length, but is triggered by the activity of buses. there are sensors in the ceiling of the bus deck that see where the buses are. when they move, it triggers a fountain at the bottom level, so that the shape of the bus and water will move from one end of the park. you can imagine, kids are absolutely going to love this. it is accessible fountain that one can play in, if you choose to. obviously, safety considerations are being woven into the design. we think this will be one of the most interesting and talked about aspects of the design. ned has done several full-scale mockups to make sure it works. he has tested it with vehicles. it will be enormous and totally

unique to san francisco and the transit center project. finally, we are working with the los angeles artist born in the bay area, tim hawkinson, one of the most important contemporary artists today. his idea was to create a giant welcoming sculpture made of the rubble and debris of the demolished former transit center. we have very carefully called 40 pieces of concrete with our contractors so that they can be reassembled as a 40-foot high structure welcoming people to the transit center. finally, of view of the transit center from the air and from neighboring buildings in the evening. >> thank you. are there any questions? director sartipi? director sartipi: i do hope bus

operations were considered in the design, as well as the consideration of future changes if they take place in operations. >> bus operations have been a critical factor at the bus deck level and on the ground floor. they continue to be a subject of much discussion, as you can imagine, a very complex undertaking, but that has been one of the driving considerations throughout the entire design process. director metcalf: this is going to be an incredible building. the expressiveness of it will be a wonderful contrast with the buttoned-up, downtown architecture we have. that is, in fact, an important principle in san francisco, urban design. private buildings are supposed

to be stayed, and we reserve public buildings for that expressiveness. i think the biggest risk in this design, in my opinion, remains the park. we want it to be like the high line, but what if it ends up like being like freeway part in seattle, like so many failed public spaces in america? we have learned a lot in the past 40 years about elevated parks, but there are many more failures than successes and american cities, and many failures by the greatest designers of landscape architecture. it may be handled by good policing, to keep it safe, but

it is so lacking in ways to get theire, especially from outside the building. i love the idea of bridges to the building, as a way to meet open space requirements. if there ends up being a lot of those, that will be a neat design feature, sort of breaking the rule that we do not do bridges over public streets in san francisco, but in this case, we will. i know you are in construction drawings and it is too late to change anything, but that is the thing that i hope you continue to develop more. >> as you can imagine, the success of the park is as important to us, as it is to san francisco. it has been the proposal since the day the competition. we have spent a lot of time working toward its success, and

it has several aspects. one is accessibility. it needs to be readily accessible, in many ways as possible. there are some-20 ways to get to the park. that is important to us. secondly, your development is perfectly timed, in the sense that you're able to influence a member of the adjacent buildings. already, we are being asked by adjacent property owners -- one is in the room today -- how can i bridge over, how can i get to the park? we have some designs for bridges that make it very easy to access the park at the upper level. the transit center tower will cover an entire restaurant floor at the park level, with a very large bridge connection. so already, adjacent property owners are seeing that as a tremendous advantage. third, safety is critical to us.

it is a very visible, sir available park, one where we have multiple levels of security considerations. finally, we are packing it with activities. several restaurant and cafe locations, and and the media that can seat as many as 1500 people, availability for weekend film festivals, conventions that spill over from mosconi to the park itself. what is being created is a perfect instrument, when programmed well, to be a phenomenal addition to the life of the city. it is fortunate, we have the high line currently being so successful in new york, we are well beyond the program abilities. the high line has two activities at most. we are going to have some-15 possible activities. so everything we are doing it

will be bent toward the success of the park. director sartipi: good answer it have any other questions or comments? i always thought that the -- director kim: i always thought that the design was great, especially how you articulated it. i was thinking the same thing about the park. it is beautiful and you want to make sure that we allow maximum utilization. we do not want to see an empty park in the middle of downtown. some of the issue that you had brought up would be helpful. i have been to the high line part, and i think it is amazing, and i think that it helps that it is connected to some of the buildings in the area. i agree, as much accessibility and activity as possible would help activate that upper level space. i am not sure how the wind is in that area, and whether that has

influenced the design. >> win, availability of sunlight, changing weather conditions, are all part of the design brief. i will say, i think director metcalf has put his finger on, by using examples of the ones in seattle, allow me to make another distinction. i could talk about this for another 45 minutes. what is happening here is you are inserting a public space 70 feet in the air in the middle of a city. larry halpern did not have that opportunity. seattle's park is actually a covering over a freeway. we are in the middle of one of the most dynamic and beautiful cities in the world, with a view to the bay bridge. that, alone, will attract people, make this a unique destination. i think we are on the verge of something really extraordinary

here. and i think it will be a success. director metcalf: is it possible to add the bridges that are not designed, in advance? that is how you have designed it? >> absolutely. fortunately, with san francisco's blog configuration, you can kind of predict, within a range of five, 10 feet, where a bridge might go. we are highlighting those places right now, inviting people to make that bridge connection. even an existing building could make a connection, if they wanted to. it is not a difficult problem. you just need to be prepared for it. director kim: we also appreciate the diversity of artists, local, national, as well as women. thank you for the report. at this time, i want to move up items 10, 11, 12, acknowledging

we have directors who need to leave. 10, 12, 13. >> downtown extension redevelopment project. final environmental statement. environmental impact report for the proposed bus grant component of the transbay program. >> if you have any questions, bob can answer. director kim: could reduce its summer for the public? >> two primary elements to this modification for the bus ramps. at the point at which the bus ramps connect to the fremont street off ramp, we are widening the points of connection so that the buses have a wider aisle in which to exit.

that is requiring us to modify the existing caltrans structure. that is the impact being reviewed. the second issue, as the ramps approached the transit center, when we worked with high-speed rail, in the fall of last year, on the radii for the throw structure coming into the bus ran, that increased offset between the last column structure and the transit center itself. so we will be -- it became a distance of almost 200 feet, which was a distance we could no longer cantilever the bus structure into the transit center. that last segment is going to be a cable-supported structure entering the bus ramp. those are the two changes that are evaluated in this eir. director kim: any questions

regarding this item? roll call police. -- please. >> [roll call] item 10 is approved. item 11, authorizing an amendment to contract no. 00804. construction manager general fund services for construction of the transbay transit center building and related structures with webcor/obayashi to increase the time for services to 160,000 hours and adjust the contract sum to justify the cost of services under amendment 2. >> bob will also brief you on the item, briefly. >> our time and materials-based service with webcor/obayashi, we originally had a top-down

construction and moved to the bottom-up construction we are now using incorporating the train box. at that time, we made an amendment to the contract and have developed a work plan going all the way out through the sale of the properties, advertising and award of construction trade packages. this is based on work plan for webcor/obayashi services through the completion of preconstruction. director kim: director ortiz. director ortiz: that is a 300% increase in the hours from the original? >> the original contract, it is 300%, but the figure based in the original contract was a preliminary evaluation for the basis of comparing the fee

proposals, not based on a specific board plant, a basis for comparing the three components in the original contract. the markup on construction services, hourly wage for construction services, and the bonding cost. as it turned out, webcor/obayashi submitted the lowest cost on each of the three components of the proposal. the work plan was subsequently developed after the switch to the bottom-up construction. director kim: any other questions? seeing nothing, roll call on the item. >> first and second. [roll call] no members of the public wanted

to comment. item 11 is approved. director kim: item 12 please. >> approving revolution -- resolutions to remove local government services as an intermediary for benefits and payroll between the tjpa and tjpa staff. >> directors, this item includes five revolution irresolutions and is a continuance of the item we -- resolutions and is a continuance of the items we discussed last week. public employees retirement system. these are the second steps you approved two resolutions in november. this is the approval of the final contract with calpers. two of the resolutions are for calpers health benefits. one is agreeing to join their system and make a contribution toward employee health and

retiree health care. the second one is a resolution that allows survivors of deceased employees, if they were to pass away before eligible for retirement, would allow their survivors to purchase health benefits through the calpers health system. the fifth resolution is simply replacing lgs with tjpa in everyones employment agreement. i want to emphasize there are no additional fiscal impacts to the tjpa. the overall result of this change will actually be significant savings to tjpa, over $90,000 a year is but we anticipate we will save in human resources management. i also want to point out salary and benefits are just 2% of our overall program budget and we have never utilize powerful saturday -- salary and benefits budget.

>> i know the staff report is like the. having to answer any questions you have. director kim: you will not have to increase any of your own capacity for human resources once we eliminate lgs as an intermediary? >> that is correct. we are working with adp as a peril provider and part of their services include human resources in. significantly less cost than we are paying lgs now. >> in the two resolutions subject to mental health care, one is offering the ability of employees from the tjpa, passing with prior to retirement. is that a customary thing for calpers to provide? >> it is up to agencies that our contract with calpers.

an optional benefit. it does not cost the agency anything, but is a nice thing for employees to know, should anything happen before they were eligible for retirement, that their family could continue to purchase health coverage. again, it does not cost the agency anything. families are responsible for medical premiums. director kim: any other questions? simenon, roll call on item. -- seeing none, roll call on item. >> we need a motion. >> seconded. >> [roll call] item 12 is approved. item 13. approving the minutes of the november 10, 2011 meeting. the members of the public wanted

to comment on the item. >> motion to approve. >> second. >> no members of the public wanted to comment. all in favor? any opposed? seeing none, i will approve the minutes. if you would like, we could go back to the other items. director kim: acknowledging that two members need to leave, we will not have a quorum, which we do not need for these items, suggesting that we move item 8 to the january board of directors meeting, which i support. >> we can do that, but we have to present item nine. director kim: please call item 9. >> presentation of the audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended june 30, 2011 and report to the board of directors. >> this will be a quick item.

this is our eighth consecutive year of having clean, unqualified audit opinions on our financial statements. before i introduce our auditor to address you, i just want to thank our staff that puts a lot of work into producing the financial statements and keeping our accounting records in a state that you can produce clean and financial statements. internal controls -- you can have internal controls written down, but it takes staff following and respecting them in order to produce your clean accounting reports. with that, i would like to have ahmad, from our independent contractor in company, to address you for a moment or two. >> good morning. i am the department in charge of the audit at the transbay tjpa.

under government auditing standards, and general accepted accounting principles, the financial statements are presented to you, alongside three opinions. one of which is on the fair presentation of the financial statement, as well as the couple more opinions. one of which is on federal compliance. the agency receives a significant amount of federal funding, as well as reporting to you any significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in internal control. i am pleased to let you know that we issued a clean opinion in all 3 areas. no audit adjustments as it relates to the financial statements. we had no internal controls, no material deficiencies noted in the regular audit, as well as the federal compliance audit that we have performed for fiscal year 2011. the f